Joseph Matthew led home the combined field of the Suzuki Gixxer Cup and Red Bull Road to Rookies Cup. (PHOTO: Vinayak Pande)

Joseph Matthew and Zothanmawia were the winners of 2018's opening races of the Suzuki Gixxer Cup and the Red Bull Road to Rookies Cup at the Kari Motor Speedway at Coimbatore, here today.

The two classes were run on a combined grid of 28 riders - 21 in the Gixxer Cup - over the course of ten laps around the 14-turn, 2.2km circuit.

In the Gixxer Cup class, Chennai's Matthew lead away from pole position and steadily opened up a 3.245 second advantage over Aizwal's Malsawmdawngliana and third placed Syed Muzamil Ali from Bangalore who was just a further 0.059 seconds adrift in third place.

Author Description

Vinayak Pande Vinayak was autoX‘s Motorsport Editor. He’s worked as a motorsport journalist for more than ten years and has travelled the world to closely follow F1, Moto GP and rallying – even if it’s on his own time. Vinayak also keeps a close eye on Indian motorsport and has covered numerous domestic events. He extensively covered F1 when it was held in India and has interviewed some of the sport’s most famous personalities.